Art civilizes us and it connects us and activates us. And so it's really important to connect with compassion, with stories about people who are different from us.

Culture civilizes us, and that's why every single despotic regime has tried to smash [the arts].

It's been a long time since universal suffrage, and I'm sick of the old white men running the show.

You can't be trying to make a film that pleases all people, you know, so it's not a concern of mine.

We talked about trying to create an image that would somehow, to an audience, create the sense of awe, wonder and shock that the troops must have felt that their monarch - and a female monarch - went to the frontline of battle and was prepared to lay down her life. This speech is so well known and has been done in virtually every version of the events of Elizabeth's life.

You can only desire something that you've already had in your life.

Women have been doing very, very strange things for centuries. I mean ancient Egyptians were already doing that, but I don't necessarily judge people who do. I don't really think it makes people look better; they just look different.